Teacher wait-times in physics instruction of different duration (45 VS. 60/90 minutes)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25321/prise.2018.756

Keywords:

Lesson duration, Quality of instruction, Question level, Stability of teacher characteristic, Video study, Wait-time

Abstract

In recent times, some schools in Germany change the traditional 45-minutes lesson duration to 60 or 90 minutes. Little is known about the impact on the quality of instruction. Teachers’ wait-time after asking questions is related to the cognitive activation of pupils. This exploratory study pursues the question whether a prolongation of lesson duration changes the average wait-time of four individual physics teachers. The finding is that the teachers under investigation show slightly longer wait-times than other teachers reported in literature, and that wait-time improvement does not happen automatically with lesson prolongation. In conclusion, teacher wait-time seems more likely to be a stable characteristic of the individual teacher. Wait-time improvement seemingly does not happen automatically with lesson prolongation, but probably needs sensitization and additional training.

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Published

2018-09-14

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2018)

Section

Articles

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